w3w3.com

Hope is not a method here...

For entrepreneurs it takes passion and planning
1341_ 1/25/13 - Colorado Companies to Watch winner, Applied Trust cofounders Trent Hein and Ned McClain (a new father, Congratulations) join Larry Nelson for a check-in visit. We love to get successful entrepreneurs to weigh in on what they see as the barriers and challenges to becoming an entrepreneur today. The advice is always worth hearing. Trent directs us to a very personal and important step. "You've got the great idea - but you've got to have the plan that says here's how you're getting from point A to point B. Here's how I'm going to manage my staff. Here's how I'm going to get revenue. There was a mindset for a period of time, where if you just hoped it would happen - it would. But hope's not a method here. We've got to have a plan." Trent tells us that for the 12+ years that he and Ned have been working together they plan everything out, in some cases multiple years out." Doing that, Trent says, "It is critical to an entrepreneur's success." Ned and Larry agree, it's a hot time for entrepreneurs in Boulder and Denver right now. But Ned believes you have to find something you're really passionate about. They started Applied Trust just after the dot com boom - it was probably not advisable to start an IT infrastructure - security - performance company then. But, it was something they were passionate about and that passion is what helped them be successful. It's certainly a challenge today, there's a temptation to just find something so they can do a startup. Agreeing heartily, Larry coined the Double P words here... Passion and Planning. Listen for more great advice... COLORADO COMPANIES TO WATCH ACCEPTING NOMINATIONS Colorado Companies to Watch recognizes second- stage companies that are developing valuable products and services and creating quality jobs. They are currently accepting nominations for the 2013 Colorado Companies to Watch award. Companies may apply without being nominated. The nomination deadline is January 28, 2013. To learn more, please click here.
RELATED LINKS: .AppliedTrust || The Barking Seal Blog || Gala Event || Colorado Companies to Watch || Colorado Companies to Watch Channel || PodCast Directory || Gala Event Photos || KEYWORDS: AppliedTrust, Trent Hein, Ned McClain, IT infrastructure, Cloud Services, Lowe Foundation, Colorado Companies to Watch, Gala Event, COCTW, Second Stage Companies, Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade, , bytes=7539882
LISTEN TO: Applied Trust, Trent Hein & Ned McClain, CoFounders

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Developing future opportunities

Venture capitalists looking into the newest
1340_ 1/23/13 - The line between the digital and physical worlds has blurred. We are talking with two of the young men who watch that line, understand and encourage development and bet their futures on what it all means. We're here at the Defrag / blur 2012 Conferences talking with Seth Levine and Ryan McIntyre from Foundry Group. The two conferences are really loaded with some high powered stuff everything from devices that enable [non-invasive] brain-computer interaction to 3D printers and gaming with helicopters that are controlled wirelessly and nearly intuitively, by wrist action. We're looking for an overview and we think Ryan and Seth can help us with that in terms of what the Foundry Group is looking at today. Ryan tells us they have a handful of investment themes they like to explore in the investing process. Here at Defrag and blur Foundry Group has had a number of their portfolio companies represented within those themes. Defrag came out of conversations around how technology was evolving in the enterprise and the inter-connection of computers, glue applications, protocol applications - these are some of the themes we talked about. And blur really came out of our interest in the evolution of human-computer interaction. So the notion that the ways we interact with computers and computer systems is undergoing a massive, seismic shift right now. So your keyboard and mouse, windows gooey - is behind us. You know, we have new touch screen interaction with our pads and our tablets, just the way we interact with and even what we recognize with computers is undergoing this seismic shift and changes. The exhibits and companies that are here really represent that. That's why we're here and deeply interested in what's going on in the world of human-computer interaction. Seth explained that last year's blur [2011] was exactly that. Ryan said, "That's the evolution of the core idea, that it's expanded the footprint. It’s the notion of how we interact with the computer in the real world. It really allows us to take the digital world and push it out into the physical world. That's a fascinating development that really expands the kind of things we can talk about in computer interaction and digital life and blur..." ...listen for more ...
RELATED LINKS: Foundry Group || Defrag 1 Site, 2 Shows 3 Days || Defrag/blur Info || Blur Conference Photos || Defrag Conference Photos || KEYWORDS: Ryan McIntyre, Seth Levine, Foundry Group, Venture Capitalist, DefragCon 2012, blur, Software, Non-Invasive Brain-Computer Interfaces, Glue Applications, Protocol Applications > bytes=3783265
LISTEN TO: Seth Levine & Ryan McIntyre, Foundry Group

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Muse as effective as Ritalin

Learning how to build healthier brain habits
1334_ 1/12/13 - We've enlisted Kirsten Nelson to help us cover the blur conference with so much cutting edge technology and business to check out here. We're talking with Ariel Garten, CEO and cofounder of InteraXon, specializing in non-invasive brain-computer interfaces - thought controlled computing products and applications... It's just what it sounds like, it is the ability to interact with content directly with your mind. The 'Muse' is a sensor that sits on your forehead and uses your brain waves and then lets you play games with your brain, interact with lighting systems, control music, or allow you to see inside your own mind, and see your own brain activity. You can use that information to improve your cognitive fitness, improve your emotional regulation and see what your brain is doing at different times of the day. Kirsten asked Ariel if there were specific groups that could benefit from this kind of technology. Ariel said, "...everyone can benefit from learning how to build healthier brain habits, how to improve their own mental functioning and, the way they interact in the world. In particular kids with ADD can benefit from it. Kids with ADD have lowered levels of beta waves and actually playing games with their brain - specifically with their beta waves can decrease their ADD symptoms as effectively as Ritalin." Where is this technology going in the future? Ariel explains, "In the far future it will be as ubiquitous as voice or gesture technology is now. Using your mind to interact with technology is going to be a really basic way to interact with the world." InteraXon was formed in 2007 when Ariel Garten decided to commercialize the thought controlled computing technology initially developed by world-renowned cyberneticist Dr. Steve Mann and his colleague, Dr. James Fung...There's more...
RELATED LINKS: InteraXon || C3 Writing || Defrag 1 Site, 2 Shows 3 Days || Defrag/blur Info || Blur Conference Photos || Defrag Conference Photos || KEYWORDS: Ariel Garten, CEO, InteraXon, Kirsten Nelson DefragCon 2012, blur, Software, Non-Invasive Brain-Computer Interfaces, Muse, ADD, Brain Waves, bytes=3091542
LISTEN TO: Ariel Garten, CEO/Founder Interaxon

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Crossing multiple programming platforms...

Multi Touch computing in real time
1326_ 12/14/12 - We've corralled the CEO of Gestureworks here at the Blur Conference, Jim Spadaccini. Gestureworks is a multi touch, authoring SDK or Software Development Kit. It processes up to 300 gestures, it works in a variety of different platforms. We've had a version that works with the Action Script language for a number of years and now we're branching out and we have new versions that are going to be across multiple programming platforms. With this software you can create new experiences that take advantage of some of the multi touch hardware and devices that are coming out. So everything from multi touch tables to tablets, all-in-ones, to ultra books, a lot of authoring possibilities with our very powerful multi touch sdk. Larry saw a demonstration at the Gestureworks booth and was fascinated. Jim said, "One of the things that got us excited about multi touch tables in particular, is there is a social dynamic that goes on, that there is more than one person interacting at the same time on these devices. So it's a shared experience and if you think about it, things like the personal computer and our own personal devices are just that, things that we use as individuals. So it is unusual that you have computing experiences where you're sharing those experiences with other people in real time. Larry then asked, "What are the biggest challenges that entrepreneurs face today?" "Certainly when the crisis hit, capital is the biggest issue. Our company has gone through issues like that as well. It's a small company and self-funded. My best advice is to be lean and think lean and just be really focused and really tenacious. That's what we did, we're a very flexible organization. Along with our Gestureworks framework, our larger company which is Ideum, develops multi touch tables..." Jim goes onto talk about the biggest opportunities...listen for more ...
RELATED LINKS: gestureworks || Defrag/blur Info || Software Channel || Blur Conference Photos || Defrag Conference Photos || PodCast Directory || KEYWORDS: Jim Spadaccini, Gestureworks, DefragCon 2012, Software, Entrepreneurs, Emerging Tech, Software Development Kit, Action Script Language, Touch Tables, Tablets, Ideum > bytes=5114883
LISTEN TO: Jim Spadaccini, CEO, Gestureworks

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Computer Science Education = Opportunities

 

Did you know that Computer Science Education Week (CSEdWeek) is just around the corner?

Since we know that an increase in computer science education creates opportunities to increase the diversity of people who pursue computing, NCWIT is a major fan of CSEd Week. As a fan of NCWIT, we hope you will become a fan of CSEdWeek, too. To help stoke your fandom, we're going to tell you a few things about CSEdWeek and computing education that you may not have known.

• Did you know that CSEdWeek was born in 2010 when the 11th Congress passed House Resolution 1560, "Supporting the increased understanding of, and interest in, computer science and computing careers among the public and in schools, and to ensure an ample and diverse future technology workforce?
• Did you know that CSEdWeek takes place December 9-15, 2012, to coincide with the birthday of visionary computer scientist. Admiral Grace Hopper, who was born on December 9, 1906?
• Did you know that only 9 states allow computer science to count as a math or science graduation requirement, and did you know that the number of high schools offering AP computer science has fallen 35% since 2005?
  
• Did you know that the lack of computing education in schools especially impacts girls, because girls get fewer informal opportunities to experience computing outside of school?
• Did you know that computing education is a BIG DEAL, because the Department of Labor projects that there will be 1.4 million computing-related job openings by 202 but the U.S. is producing only enough computing graduates to fill 61% of these jobs?
• Did you know that pledging your support for CSEdWeek costs nothing, takes two minutes, and is easy as pie?
• Did you now that you can join CSEdWeek celebrations around the country (like cake to honor Grace Hopper's birthday, a Scratch Day in NYC, a Robotics Explosion, and an ITPalooza), or plan your own?
• Did you know that there's a CSEdWeek Twitter conversation on December 11 at 6 PM ET?
• Did you know that there's no excuse for doing nothing - when an all-ages activity like CSUnplugged is fun and free - and that there are loads more ideas at the CSEdWeek website?
  

Pledge and plan today. Get started at www.csedweek.org. Follow CSEdWeek on Twitter. Visit CSEdWeek on Facebook.

Defrag editorial

Big Data Evolution and Social Business...
         Written by Kirsten Nelson
          1321_ 12/5/12 - Defrag, a tech conference held each fall at the Omni Interlocken Resort in Broomfield, Colorado recently met for its sixth annual event. Bringing keynote speakers, CxOs, entrepreneurs and the tech minded, data driven together, what big ideas arose in 2012? Big Data and Social Business, of course.
        Far from surprising, given that Defrag organizers Eric Norlin, Brad Feld, and Phil Becker began Defrag from their collective desire to discuss the innovative software and technological tools needed to sift through and analyze the mounting avalanche of information. The very nature of data, as evidenced by the descriptions and discussions of notable keynote presenters such as Kevin Kelly and Paul Kedrosky, has evolved, and continues to evolve, at an exponential pace. In similar fashion, so has the imperative for businesses, from the gargantuan to small start up, to utilize that data.
        In the past, utilization prompted faint images or ideas of algorithms designed to sort, classify, and analyze data for application in finite areas such as product design and consumer relations – something the IT guys (and gals) could worry about. As evidenced by many of the keynote speakers, data utilization and our conception of it must undergo an evolution as well. An evolution that transforms not only how we think about data, but how we think about the role of data within business. True, meaningful utilization takes companies through the growing pains of becoming authentically social – not just in finite pockets of the infrastructure, but across all inter and intrapersonal relationships and interactions within the organization. READ More...
RELATED LINKS: C3 Writing || TechStars || Foundry Group || Defrag/blur Info || C3 Writing Channel || KEYWORDS: Defrag 2012, Big Data Evolution, big data, Brad Feld, Phil Becker, Eric Norlin, algorithms, analyze, Kirsten Nelson, Paul Kedrosky, Kevin Kelly, data utilization

Hosted source control

Sticking to it is going to be the entrepreneurs challenge
1319_ 11/30/12 - Here at Defrag 2012, we are talking with John Minnihan, founder of Freepository. Freepository provides hosted source control to developers who are geographically dispersed. "We've been doing this since 1999 and were the first source code hosting site that was broadly used and we've been growing ever since" said John. He thinks the biggest challenge facing businesses today is pretty straightforward - sticking to it is going to be a challenge. Smart people have world changing ideas. Having the capacity to stick with their ideas through maybe some tougher challenging times. Normal stuff that you go through when you start a business, might seem more difficult. But you stick with it. In discussing the greatest opportunity John said, "By far it is the sheer cost of starting a business. It is incredibly low cost today as compared to ten years ago. A tremendous and broader way of either free or very low cost tools that provide immediate value to your business. Things like Freepository, hosted source control. You've got marketing solutions that are completely web based. You've got ways to broadcast your message - to get people excited about what you're doing through Twitter, through Facebook, Tumbler and other large, yet broadly seen media sites like that. So the low cost aspect of going from zero to something today is probably the single greatest opportunity for an entrepreneur." John's advice to an aspiring entrepreneur - "Go for it, just do it. You know, don't wait. Don't put off. Don't find yourself five years from today saying I wish I'd done this. Oh that great idea I had... Three other parties are doing it and they're just kicking butt." Your mantra should be, Do it! Do it! Do it! Listen now...
RELATED LINKS: Freepository || Defrag/blur Info || In the News || w3w3.com Blog || KEYWORDS: John Minnihan, Freepository, Defrag, blur, Source Code Repositories, Open Source Project Hosting Sites, Eclipse, TortoiseCVS, WinCVS, CLI, Entrepreneurs, > bytes=3502814
LISTEN TO: John Minnihan, Founder, FreePository

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On top of the cloud

It is easy to deploy software on top of cloud servers
1316_ 11/28/12 - Welcome to the Cloud where you can rent a server by the hour! Now you've got a machine with a command line interface - but it doesn't have anything installed or running on it that is useful to a business person or even a developer... We're here at Defrag 2012 talking with Dave Jilk, founder and CEO of Standing Cloud - "The simple story is we make it really easy to deploy software on top of cloud servers like the application software, so that you can use it for something functional like Drupal for a website or a customer relationship management application" he said. Dave also told us that Standing Cloud has released some white labels with cloud providers. So, they work with the folks who actually do the renting of the infrastructure and provide their layer on top of them. The two that Standing Cloud has done since we last spoke to Dave... are VPS.net a share hosting company that has moved into the cloud and offer applications for their shared hosting companies. So you don't see Standing Cloud's name but when you go to their home page, that's how you launch applications. The other is also interesting, a company in Iceland called GreenQloud[.com], and they are in the only data center in the world that is 100% renewable energy - actually being sourced for the power, not energy credits. It's actually geothermal powered, because that's where all the power in Iceland comes from. Larry asked, "What advice do you offer to an entrepreneur now?" Dave replied, "The advice I'd give right now is meta-advice. There are so many organizations and sources for mentorship to entrepreneurs today. They're not all exclusive, TechStars and some of the other organizations out there - you've got to be selected. But there are also other opportunities for mentorship that are less structured. Back when Dave started his career nobody talked about mentorship, there was nothing formal available. Now, you're really doing yourself a disservice - you are much more likely to fail if you don't go find yourself some mentors..." Listen for more...
RELATED LINKS: Standing Cloud || Defrag/blur Info || Foundry Group || TechStars || GreenQloud || Software Channel || KEYWORDS: Dave Jilk, Defrag/Blur 2012, Standing Cloud, Infrastructure-as-a-Service, IssA, Amazon, Customer Relation Management, Cloud, Software Providers, Foundry Group, TechStars, GreenQloud, Independent Software Vendors > bytes=3982213
LISTEN TO: Dave Jilk, CEO/Founder, Standing Cloud

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Private social network...

Exploring the enterprise social networking space
1317_ 11/27/12 - Based in downtown Denver, this company is eight years old, with about 150 folks at this point, highly profitable and growing quickly, Newsgator is in the enterprise social networking space, and we are talking with JB Holston, founder and Chairman of the Board, here at Defrag 2012. Think of Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter - but think of it as a private, for a company's employees and external constituents, based primarily on the Microsoft stack, but not entirely. About half of their business is outside of the U.S. and JB says, "It's been a great ride!" Larry asked JB, with all of his experience, over these past few years, "What do you think are the biggest challenges for businesses today?" JB said, "I really think of two as the primary challenges. One is talent. both finding and retaining, training, motivating, managing talent. If you're a software company in particular, the demand for software engineers is so great and so competitive, that you've got to be a wonderful company to work for. Challenge number two is aggregate demand. When I think about all the macroeconomic and political issues going on. Anything that slows down aggregate demand, uncertainty about the fiscal cliff, that sort of thing, tends to effect the pace of demand. And as long as that pace is allowed to grow unfettered than the business is continued to be terrific." JB sees so many opportunities for business today, particularly in the front range. JB has been very involved in the Denver Startup scene here in the last few months. They had over 1000 startup companies in the Denver area alone, who were associated with that event. He said, "I think the message from that is, it is incredibly easy to start a great firm today...listen for more exciting ideas...
RELATED LINKS: Newsgator || Foundry Group || TechStars || Defrag/blur Info || Software Channel || Blog || KEYWORDS: JB Holston, NewsGator, Software, Enterprise Social Networking Space, DefragCon 2012, Software, Collaboration, Entrepreneurs, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Microsoft Stack, > bytes=4116796
LISTEN TO: JB Holston, Chairman of Board, NewsGator

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Augmented Reality - What does your robot eat?

The app is free - it's a really special piece of technology
1315_ 11/21/12 - Spending a day at Blur is like taking a step into the future, with a reality feature that takes your breath away!
We spoke with Paul Berberian, CEO of Orbotix. As an overview, Paul told us Orbotix is the creator of Sphero, a little robotic ball that you control with your smart phone. What is special about Sphero is it is a robot gaming system. So think of a Wii or an Xbox except it rolls around on the ground, and there are over 20 different apps and games for it - and more coming out every month. Now, Paul was a keynote speaker at ‘Blur’, a very interesting conference here in Colorado, and today they just announced their new augmented reality application or game called Sharky the Beaver. It's a crazed little beaver that thinks he's a shark and he runs around your house eating cupcakes that you toss to him electronically. What's really special about this new application and game is it's the first time that you can take a 3-dimensional character and have it actually move around your house or office and interact with real world objects as well as virtual objects, without any setup, without any preparation it just works, it works in a bunch of different environments. The app is free - it's a really special piece of technology that just disappears into the end user - it's magical - they look at the ground and they see a robot ball, they look at their screen and they see a little crazy, whacked out beaver running around the house, and the technology disappears into the background. It just becomes really immersive and fun. Paul is a serial entrepreneur and goes onto offering some great advice for business owners and aspirating entrepreneurs. BTW, you might want to consider buying a Sphero for a year-end holiday present ...listen for more...
RELATED LINKS: Sphero Home || TechStars || Paul Berberian 10 years ago || Foundry Group || Defrag/blur Info || KEYWORDS: Paul Berberian, Orbotix, Sphero, Defrag, blur, Sharky the Beaver, Game, Electronically, Robot Ball, Colorado, Entrepreneurs, > bytes=4832760
LISTEN TO: Paul Berberian, CEO, Sphero coming to you from the Blur Conference

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